Signed ephemeral email addresses

ABSTRACT

Architecture for generating a temporary account (e.g., an email address) with a user-supplied friendly name and a secret used to the sign the temporary account. For example, when a user wishes to create a temporary email address to use with an online organization, a friendly name is provided and the system generates a temporary email address including the friendly name. A signing component signs the temporary email address with a secret. One or more of these secrets can be provisioned prior to the user&#39;s creation of a friendly name, which eliminates propagation delay. During use, only incoming email messages having the temporary email address signed with the secret are validated. When the user revokes the temporary email address, the secret is revoked and the revocation is propagated to network gateways, rejecting any email sent to that address.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending patent application Ser.No. 12/143,819, entitled “SIGNED EPHEMERAL EMAIL ADDRESSES”, and filedJun. 22, 2008, the entirety of which is incorporated by referenceherein.

BACKGROUND

Email users are often prompted to give their email addresses to variousorganizations in order to setup an account for online transactions. Someof these organizations are potentially untrustworthy, and in return, cansend unwanted communications or disseminate the email addresses to thirdparties, which may further abuse the email address. Blocking theoriginal untrustworthy organization does not guard against the thirdparties. Moreover, revoking the email address prevents communicationwith legitimate senders, resulting in inconvenience for the user andentities seeking communications with the user.

One technique that attempts to defeat this problem is for the user tocreate a temporary address for use only with this organization, ratherthan exposing a user's main email address. However, in email serversystems, there can be a propagation delay in creating a new emailaddress and informing all the gateways of the new temporary address. Ifthe user submits a new email address to an organization, the gateways atthe email network system will reject any incoming emails untilpropagation is complete and the new email address is valid.

It is a known technique to generate one or more temporary addresses foreach user in advance, before the addresses are needed. However, the usercan neither select the new temporary addresses, nor can the temporaryaddresses be tailored to the organization to which the addresses will besubmitted. Thus, the previously-generated temporary addresses aredifficult for the user to remember and identify, since themachine-generated addresses do not include user-friendly nomenclature.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some novel embodiments described herein. This summaryis not an extensive overview, and it is not intended to identifykey/critical elements or to delineate the scope thereof. Its solepurpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude tothe more detailed description that is presented later.

To that end, architecture is disclosed for creating an ephemeral emailaddress that can be given to an organization or other party and whichcan be revoked by the user. An email network system generates one ormore secrets associated with a user that can be used to sign an emailaddress. These secrets are propagated to the network gateways.

When the user requests a new email address, the user provides a friendlyname and the system generates a signed version of the address ready foruse. The gateway does not need a record of the friendly name or the fulladdress in advance. Rather, the gateway can recognize the secret portionincluded in the email address and thereby accept mail at that address.In the event that the user wishes to revoke the address, the systemrevokes the secret and the revocation is propagated to the gateways.Email sent to the address thereafter will be rejected.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certainillustrative aspects are described herein in connection with thefollowing description and the annexed drawings. These aspects areindicative of the various ways in which the principles disclosed hereincan be practiced, all aspects and equivalents of which are intended tobe within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other advantages andnovel features will become apparent from the following detaileddescription when considered in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a computer-implemented system for generating atemporary account with a user-supplied friendly name.

FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative embodiment of a computer-implementedsystem for generating a temporary account with a user-supplied friendlyname, including additional exemplary aspects.

FIG. 3 illustrates an alternative embodiment of a signing component usedwith the computer-implemented system.

FIG. 4 illustrates another alternative embodiment of acomputer-implemented messaging system for generating a temporary emailaddress with a user-supplied friendly name.

FIG. 5 illustrates yet another alternative embodiment of acomputer-implemented messaging system for generating a plurality oftemporary email addresses from a single secret.

FIG. 6 illustrates still another alternative embodiment of acomputer-implemented messaging system for generating a plurality oftemporary email addresses from a respective plurality of secrets.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a signing component for generating asigned email address as used with the computer-implemented messagingsystem.

FIG. 8 illustrates an alternative embodiment of a validation componentused with the computer-implemented messaging system.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary computer-implemented messaging method.

FIG. 10 illustrates further exemplary aspects of thecomputer-implemented messaging method.

FIG. 11 illustrates further exemplary aspects of temporary email addressgenerating and signing operations in the computer-implemented messagingmethod.

FIG. 12 illustrates a block diagram of a computing system operable toexecute messaging in accordance with the disclosed architecture.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary computing environment operable toexecute a messaging method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The disclosed architecture relates to a computer-implemented system forgenerating a temporary account (e.g., an email address) with auser-supplied friendly name and a secret used to the sign the temporaryaccount. For example, when a user desires to create a temporary emailaddress to use with an online organization, a friendly name is providedand the system generates a temporary email address that includes thefriendly name. A signing component signs the temporary email addresswith a secret. One or more of these secrets can be provisioned prior tothe user's creation of a friendly name, which reduces propagation delay.During use, only incoming email messages having the temporary emailaddress signed with the secret are validated. When the user revokes thetemporary email address, the secret is revoked and the revocation ispropagated to network gateways, rejecting any email sent to thataddress.

Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like reference numeralsare used to refer to like elements throughout. In the followingdescription, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details areset forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It maybe evident, however, that the novel embodiments can be practiced withoutthese specific details. In other instances, well known structures anddevices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate adescription thereof. The intention is to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of theclaimed subject matter.

FIG. 1 illustrates a computer-implemented system 100 for generating atemporary account with a user-supplied friendly name. In oneimplementation, the system 100 is deployed for use with an email system.However, the system 100 can also be used with any type of messagingsystem, such as instant messaging, text messaging, etc., in creating anysort of online user account, or in any online situation where a userestablishes identity.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the system 100 includes an account generationcomponent 102 for generating a temporary account 104 with auser-supplied friendly name 106. The system 100 also includes a signingcomponent 108 for signing the temporary account 104 with a secret 110.

For example, if the user wishes to setup an online account at a store,the friendly name 106 can be the name of the store. If the store is “TheNobody Store,” the user can supply the word “nobody.” The accountgeneration component 102 generates the temporary account 104 with thename “nobody.” The signing component 108 adds a signature into theaccount that includes the secret 110. The user specifies the “nobody”account but the network gateway has not yet been notified of an accountincluding this word. However, since the signature includes the secret110, the gateway recognizes this component of the account and willaccept messages containing the secret 110.

In an alternative implementation, the secrets can be indexed such thatthe index is part of the email address. Thus, validation will theninclude processing the index to obtain the secret, and then processingthe secret. In yet another embodiment, the email address can be signedbased on the user allowed to use the address. For example, whenrequesting a temporary email address, the user can request the emailaddress be called Contoso, but then restrict the access of the addressto contoso.com. When validating, the gateway then looks up the secret inthe gateway address book, looks up the domain name contoso.com, and thenvalidates the signature based on both the secret and domain name.

FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative embodiment of a computer-implementedsystem 200 for generating the temporary account 104 with theuser-supplied friendly name 106, including additional exemplary aspects.A provisioning component 202 can be included for provisioning the secret110 associated with the temporary account 104 prior to creation of thefriendly name 106. Multiples of the temporary account 104 can be createdin this way by a service provider upon creation of a particular useraccount within the system 200. Alternatively, the provisioning component202 can provision one or more temporary accounts at any time prior tothe generating of the temporary account 104 with the user-suppliedfriendly name 106.

The temporary account 104 can be a temporary email address, asespecially used for providing a login for an online organization.However, it is to be appreciated that the temporary account can also bean instant messaging account address, a text messaging account address,or any other sort of online user account address where login credentialsare provided for a user to establish identity.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the system 200 can also include a revocationcomponent 204 for revoking the secret 110 in response to a user choosingto revoke the temporary account 104. In the above example, if thetemporary account 104 is an email account, and if a volume of spam isreceived at the associated email address, the user can instruct thesystem 200 to revoke the secret 110. Upon revocation, the gateways willthen deny access to any received messages with the revoked secret. Inthis way, the user is given control over undesired messages that may bereceived from an unreliable organization or any other third party whichobtained the temporary account 104.

As also illustrated in FIG. 2, the system 200 can also include avalidation component 206 for validating the temporary accounts 104signed with the secret 110. The validation component 206 can reside onthe gateway through which messages are processed. For example, in anemail application, the validation component 206 can be operationalinternal to a network firewall or spam filter. Alternatively, or incombination therewith, the validation component 206 can reside within orin association with a client application. For example, in an emailapplication, the validation component 206 can be used to route unwantedmessages to a spam or “junk email” folder; alternatively, a component ina resident anti-virus application.

FIG. 3 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the signing component108 used with the computer-implemented system 200. In one aspect, thesigning component 108 concatenates the secret 110 with the friendly name106 and generates a hash 300 of the secret 110 and friendly name 106.Any suitable signing algorithm can be employed. The secret 110 (e.g., astring such as SSS1) and friendly name 106 can be placed together (e.g.,SSS1nobody). An SHA-1 hashing algorithm can be used to compute the hash300, for example. Any suitable hashing algorithm can be employed.

Alternatively, the signing component 108 can combine the secret 110 withthe friendly name 106 in any suitable manner. For example, thecharacters in the friendly name 106 can be reversed before concatenatingthe friendly name 106 with the secret. Alternatively, any suitablecryptographic method can be employed, for example, public keycryptography. The signed temporary account 104 can include the secret110, the friendly name 106, and the hash 300. Additional description isprovided hereinbelow.

FIG. 4 illustrates another alternative embodiment of acomputer-implemented messaging system 400. An email generation component402 is provided for generating a temporary email address 404 with theuser-supplied friendly name 106. The signing component 108 signs thetemporary email address 404 with the secret 110. The validationcomponent 206 validates incoming email messages having the temporaryemail address 404 signed with the secret 110.

FIG. 5 illustrates yet another alternative embodiment of thecomputer-implemented system 400 for generating temporary email addressesfrom a single secret associated with the user. The signing component 108generates the single secret 110. The email generation component 402generates temporary email addresses that correspond to user-suppliedfriendly names 500, all using the single secret 110.

In producing one secret 110 per user, when the user requests thetemporary email address 404, the user receives a signed address, whichsigned address is then sent to the gateway. Upon receiving an email tothe temporary email address 404 at the gateway, the validation component206 confirms whether the address has propagated to the address book. Ifthe temporary email address 404 has propagated, the validation component206 accepts the email. If the temporary email address has notpropagated, the validation component 206 looks up the secret 110 in theaddress book and confirms whether the address 404 is signed with thesecret 110. If so, the signed email is validated and accepted. Uponrevocation, the temporary email address 404 is removed from the addressbook and the signature is invalidated. The gateway will thereafterreject any messages containing the revoked secret.

FIG. 6 illustrates still another alternative embodiment of thecomputer-implemented system 400 for generating temporary email addressesfrom a respective number of secrets associated with the user. Althoughdescribed in the context of system 400 of FIG. 4, the embodiment appliesequally well to other systems described herein. The signing component108 generates multiple secrets 600. The email generation component 402generates multiples of the temporary email address 404, each havingcorresponding user-supplied friendly names 500, and each using arespective secret of the secrets 600.

In producing the multiple secrets 600 per user, when the user requests anew temporary email address, an unused secret of the secrets 600 isselected and used to sign the temporary address 404. Upon receiving anemail to the temporary email address 404 at the gateway, the validationcomponent 206 looks up the user's secrets in the address book anddecodes the incoming address using all available secrets 600. If atleast one of the secrets 600 is valid, the validation component 206accepts the email. If none of the secrets 600 is valid, the email isrejected permanently and the gateway will reject further emailscontaining the revoked secret.

In an alternative implementation as indicated hereinabove where thesecrets are indexed such that the index is part of the email address,the incoming email address can be decoded using the secret correspondingto that index instead of decoding all available secrets. In this way,efficiency is improved by reducing processing costs.

In a practical implementation, user-specific actions such as selecting afriendly name 106 are executed on the user's specific mailbox server.The information for accepting Internet email used by the validationcomponent 206 is then propagated to each gateway server. Theprovisioning of the secrets 600 is advantageous because it enables cleardecisionmaking on message acceptance at the gateway, thereby enhancingsecurity. Provisioning also reduces load on the internal network bypreventing unwanted data such as spam from being retransmitted past thegateway. Additionally, if one of the secrets 600 is cracked for oneemail address, this does not affect the other email addresses, therebyfurther enhancing security.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of the signing component 108 forgenerating a signed email address 700. Although described in the contextof system 400 of FIG. 4, the embodiment applies equally well to othersystems described herein. The signing component 108 uses theuser-supplied friendly name 106 and the secret 110 as describedhereinabove. The signing component 108 returns the signed email address700 that included a user identifier (ID) 702, the user-supplied friendlyname 106, and an encrypted string which include the secret 110. Theencrypted string can include the hash 300 generated from a concatenationof the secret 110 with the friendly name 106.

The signing component 108 creates the signed email address 700 in thefollowing manner. Each user address book can have a specific useridentifier 702 associated with the particular user. For example, theuser identifier 702 can be a specific tag such as A17 that is only usedfor that user. Multiples of the secret 110 can also be maintained in theaddress book (e.g., SSS1, SSS2, etc.). The user identifier 702 and thesecret 110 are propagated to all gateways.

Alternatively, rather than assigning a single tag to a single user asthe user identifier 702, the same tag can be assigned to multiple usersfor validating addresses at the gateway. For multiple users with thesame tag, when validating an email address, the validation component 206selects the set of all users that have the given tag and the secret 110associated with each those particular users. For each secret 110, theemail address is validated according to that secret 110. If at least oneof the secrets validates successfully, the validation component 206accepts the email address as valid.

When the user requests a new “ephemeral” or temporary email address 404,the user provides the friendly name 106. If the user is creating anaccount with The Nobody Store as in the example mentioned hereinabove,the friendly name 106 can be “nobody.” Upon receiving this request, thesigning component 108 selects the secret 110 (e.g., SSS1), looks up theuser identifier 702 (e.g., A17), and signs the friendly name 106 usingthe secret 110.

As mentioned hereinabove, the signing algorithm concatenates the secret110 and the friendly name 106, and generates the hash 300, which may be“1AF3.” The signing component 108 then returns the signed email address700 of A17-nobody-1AF3@userdomain.com to the user. The user thenprovides this new address to The Nobody Store online website.Alternatively, as mentioned hereinabove, the signing algorithm cancombine the secret 110 with the friendly name 106 in any suitable mannerother than concatenation.

The Nobody Store sends an email to A17-nobody-1AF3@userdomain.com, whichthen gets validated at the gateway by the validation component 206. Thevalidation component 206 uses the user identifier 702 (e.g., the tagA17) to look up the secret 106. The friendly name 106 is concatenatedwith the secret 106 and the resulting string is hashed. The hash 300 iscompared with the signature indicated in the email address beingvalidated (e.g., 1AF3).

If the hash 300 and the signature match, the email address 700 is thusfound to be signed and valid. The validated email is then forwarded tothe user. In the event that the user wishes to terminate the signedemail address 700, the user requests that the secret 110 be revoked. Therevocation component 204 revokes the secret 110, and further mail tothat address 700 is rejected at the gateway.

Alternatively, the system can be implemented so that the user's mailboxincludes the signing component 108 and the provisioning component 202.Upon revocation of the secret 110, the gateway experiences a propagationdelay before revoked email messages can be rejected at the gateway.However, the mailbox immediately rejects revoked email. In this way, theuser experiences both provisioning and revocation as immediate eventsdespite the propagation delay between the mailbox and the gateway.

FIG. 8 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the validation component206. Although described in the context of system 400 of FIG. 4, theembodiment applies equally well to other systems described herein. Thevalidation component 206 can include a restriction component 800 forrestricting incoming email messages. The restriction component 800 addsan additional layer of security by only allowing email to a particularaddress emanating from a specified Internet domain.

Further to the aforementioned example, the “nobody” email address can berestricted to the domain of The Nobody Store (e.g., thenobodystore.com).In addition to comparing the secret 110 as discussed hereinabove, therestriction component 800 looks up the sender's email address to ensurethat the email address emanates from thenobodystore.com. The restrictioncomponent 800 uses the secret 110 and the domain to validate the email,and thereby restrict access to the sender's domain. In this way,unwanted messages from third party senders are eliminated.

Following is a series of flow charts representative of exemplarymethodologies for performing novel aspects of the disclosedarchitecture. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the oneor more methodologies shown herein, for example, in the form of a flowchart or flow diagram, are shown and described as a series of acts, itis to be understood and appreciated that the methodologies are notlimited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance therewith,occur in a different order and/or concurrently with other acts from thatshown and described herein. For example, those skilled in the art willunderstand and appreciate that a methodology could alternatively berepresented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in astate diagram. Moreover, not all acts illustrated in a methodology maybe required for a novel implementation.

FIG. 9 illustrates a computer-implemented method of messaging. At 900, atemporary email address is generated with a friendly name (e.g.,user-supplied). At 902, the temporary email address is signed with asecret. At 904, incoming email messages signed with the secret arevalidated. The secret is not displayed in the email address in such away that a “spammer” can learn the secret. Rather, the secret can beencrypted and the encrypted string can be added to the email address.

FIG. 10 illustrates further exemplary aspects of thecomputer-implemented messaging method. At 1000, the temporary emailaddresses are provisioned prior to creation of a friendly name. Thetemporary addresses can be provisioned by creating one or more secretsthat are maintained at the messaging system. The temporary accounts canbe created upon creation of a particular user account within a messagingserver provider system. Alternatively, a temporary email address can beprovisioned at any time prior to the generating of the temporary emailaddress with the user-supplied friendly name.

FIG. 10 also illustrates at 1002 that the secret can be revoked inresponse to a user (or other system entity) choosing to revoke thetemporary email address. As mentioned hereinabove, if a volume of spamis received at the email address, the user can instruct the system torevoke the secret, and thereby revoke the temporary email address. Uponrevocation, the gateways will then deny access to any received messageswith the revoked secret.

Following the signing of the temporary email address with a secret at902, the signing can include returning a signed email address comprisinga user identifier, the user-supplied friendly name, and an encryptedstring including the secret, as indicated at 1004. At 1006, theencrypted string can be generated by concatenating the secret with thefriendly name to generate a hash of the secret and the friendly name.

At 1008, incoming email messages are restricted to email messages havingthe temporary email address signed with the secret and a user-defineddomain name. This provides an additional layer of security by onlyallowing email at a particular address emanating from a specifiedInternet domain to be received, thereby eliminating unwanted messagesfrom third party senders.

FIG. 11 illustrates further exemplary aspects of temporary email addressgenerating and signing operations in a computer-implemented messagingmethod. Further to the generating a temporary email address, at 900, andsigning the email address, at 902, the method illustrates that thesigning includes generating a single secret for each user, as indicatedat 1100. Additionally at 1100, generating the temporary email addressincludes generating multiple temporary email addresses using the singlesecret. In this way, a number of friendly names can be provided by theuser to be validated with a single secret.

FIG. 11 also illustrates, at 1102, that the signing can includegenerating secrets for each user. Additionally at 1102, generating thetemporary email address comprises generating temporary email addressescorresponding to the number of secrets. In this way, each friendly namecan have its own secret, and the revocation of a single secret onlyinvalidates the single temporary email address, rather than all thetemporary email addresses.

As used in this application, the terms “component” and “system” areintended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, acombination of hardware and software, software, or software inexecution. For example, a component can be, but is not limited to being,a process running on a processor, a processor, a hard disk drive,multiple storage drives (of optical and/or magnetic storage medium), anobject, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or acomputer. By way of illustration, both an application running on aserver and the server can be a component. One or more components canreside within a process and/or thread of execution, and a component canbe localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or morecomputers. The word “exemplary” may be used herein to mean serving as anexample, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design describedherein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other aspects or designs.

Referring now to FIG. 12, there is illustrated a block diagram of acomputing system 1200 operable to execute the computer-implementedsystem 100 in accordance with the disclosed architecture. In order toprovide additional context for various aspects thereof, FIG. 12 and thefollowing discussion are intended to provide a brief, generaldescription of a suitable computing system 1200 in which the variousaspects can be implemented. While the description above is in thegeneral context of computer-executable instructions that may run on oneor more computers, those skilled in the art will recognize that a novelembodiment also can be implemented in combination with other programmodules and/or as a combination of hardware and software.

Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, datastructures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciatethat the inventive methods can be practiced with other computer systemconfigurations, including single-processor or multiprocessor computersystems, minicomputers, mainframe computers, as well as personalcomputers, hand-held computing devices, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, and the like, each of which can beoperatively coupled to one or more associated devices.

The illustrated aspects can also be practiced in distributed computingenvironments where certain tasks are performed by remote processingdevices that are linked through a communications network. In adistributed computing environment, program modules can be located inboth local and remote memory storage devices.

A computer typically includes a variety of computer-readable media.Computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessedby the computer and includes volatile and non-volatile media, removableand non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation,computer-readable media can comprise computer storage media andcommunication media. Computer storage media includes volatile andnon-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in anymethod or technology for storage of information such ascomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules orother data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM,ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalvideo disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or any other medium which can be used to store the desired informationand which can be accessed by the computer.

With reference again to FIG. 12, the exemplary computing system 1200 forimplementing various aspects includes a computer 1202 having aprocessing unit 1204, a system memory 1206 and a system bus 1208. Thesystem bus 1208 provides an interface for system components including,but not limited to, the system memory 1206 to the processing unit 1204.The processing unit 1204 can be any of various commercially availableprocessors. Dual microprocessors and other multi-processor architecturesmay also be employed as the processing unit 1204.

The system bus 1208 can be any of several types of bus structure thatmay further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memorycontroller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety ofcommercially available bus architectures. The system memory 1206 caninclude non-volatile memory (NON-VOL) 1210 and/or volatile memory 1212(e.g., random access memory (RAM)). A basic input/output system (BIOS)can be stored in the non-volatile memory 1210 (e.g., ROM, EPROM, EEPROM,etc.), which BIOS are the basic routines that help to transferinformation between elements within the computer 1202, such as duringstart-up. The volatile memory 1212 can also include a high-speed RAMsuch as static RAM for caching data.

The computer 1202 further includes an internal hard disk drive (HDD)1214 (e.g., EIDE, SATA), which internal HDD 1214 may also be configuredfor external use in a suitable chassis, a magnetic floppy disk drive(FDD) 1216, (e.g., to read from or write to a removable diskette 1218)and an optical disk drive 1220, (e.g., reading a CD-ROM disk 1222 or, toread from or write to other high capacity optical media such as a DVD).The HDD 1214, FDD 1216 and optical disk drive 1220 can be connected tothe system bus 1208 by a HDD interface 1224, an FDD interface 1226 andan optical drive interface 1228, respectively. The HDD interface 1224for external drive implementations can include at least one or both ofUniversal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394 interface technologies.

The drives and associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatilestorage of data, data structures, computer-executable instructions, andso forth. For the computer 1202, the drives and media accommodate thestorage of any data in a suitable digital format. Although thedescription of computer-readable media above refers to a HDD, aremovable magnetic diskette (e.g., FDD), and a removable optical mediasuch as a CD or DVD, it should be appreciated by those skilled in theart that other types of media which are readable by a computer, such aszip drives, magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, cartridges, and thelike, may also be used in the exemplary operating environment, andfurther, that any such media may contain computer-executableinstructions for performing novel methods of the disclosed architecture.

A number of program modules can be stored in the drives and volatilememory 1212, including an operating system 1230, one or more applicationprograms 1232, other program modules 1234, and program data 1236. All orportions of the operating system, applications, modules, and/or data canalso be cached in the volatile memory 1212. It is to be appreciated thatthe disclosed architecture can be implemented with various commerciallyavailable operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

The aforementioned application programs 1232, other program modules1234, and program data 1236 can include the computer-implemented system100, the account generation component 102, the temporary account 104,the user-supplied friendly name 106, the signing component 108, and thesecret 110 from FIG. 1, the computer-implemented system 200, theprovisioning component 202, the revocation component 204, and thevalidation component 206 from FIG. 2, and the hash 300 from FIG. 3.

The application programs 1232, other program modules 1234, and programdata 1236 can also include the computer-implemented messaging system400, the email generation component 402, and the temporary email address404 from FIG. 4, the signed email address 700, and the user identifier702 from FIG. 7, and the restriction component 800 from FIG. 8.

A user can enter commands and information into the computer 1202 throughone or more wire/wireless input devices, for example, a keyboard 1238and a pointing device, such as a mouse 1240. Other input devices (notshown) may include a microphone, an IR remote control, a joystick, agame pad, a stylus pen, touch screen, or the like. These and other inputdevices are often connected to the processing unit 1204 through an inputdevice interface 1242 that is coupled to the system bus 1208, but can beconnected by other interfaces such as a parallel port, IEEE 1394 serialport, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, etc.

A monitor 1244 or other type of display device is also connected to thesystem bus 1208 via an interface, such as a video adaptor 1246. Inaddition to the monitor 1244, a computer typically includes otherperipheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers, printers, etc.

The computer 1202 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections via wire and/or wireless communications to one or moreremote computers, such as a remote computer(s) 1248. The remotecomputer(s) 1248 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, apersonal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainmentappliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typicallyincludes many or all of the elements described relative to the computer1202, although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device1250 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted includewire/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 1252 and/orlarger networks, for example, a wide area network (WAN) 1254. Such LANand WAN networking environments are commonplace in offices andcompanies, and facilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such asintranets, all of which may connect to a global communications network,for example, the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 1202 isconnected to the LAN 1252 through a wire and/or wireless communicationnetwork interface or adaptor 1256. The adaptor 1256 can facilitate wireand/or wireless communications to the LAN 1252, which may also include awireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with thewireless functionality of the adaptor 1256.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 1202 can includea modem 1258, or is connected to a communications server on the WAN1254, or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN1254, such as by way of the Internet. The modem 1258, which can beinternal or external and a wire and/or wireless device, is connected tothe system bus 1208 via the input device interface 1242. In a networkedenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 1202, orportions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device1250. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown areexemplary and other means of establishing a communications link betweenthe computers can be used.

The computer 1202 is operable to communicate with wire and wirelessdevices or entities using the IEEE 802.x family of standards, such aswireless devices operatively disposed in wireless communication (e.g.,IEEE 802.11 over-the-air modulation techniques) with, for example, aprinter, scanner, desktop and/or portable computer, personal digitalassistant (PDA), communications satellite, any piece of equipment orlocation associated with a wirelessly detectable tag (e.g., a kiosk,news stand, restroom), and telephone. This includes at least Wi-Fi (orWireless Fidelity), WiMax, and Bluetooth™ wireless technologies. Thus,the communication can be a predefined structure as with a conventionalnetwork or simply an ad hoc communication between at least two devices.Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11x (a, b, g,etc.) to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Finetwork can be used to connect computers to each other, to the Internet,and to wire networks (which use IEEE 802.3-related media and functions).

Referring now to FIG. 13, there is illustrated a schematic block diagramof an exemplary computing environment 1300 that interacts with thecomputer-implemented systems described herein. The environment 1300includes one or more client(s) 1302. The client(s) 1302 can be hardwareand/or software (e.g., threads, processes, computing devices). Theclient(s) 1302 can house cookie(s) and/or associated contextualinformation, for example.

The environment 1300 also includes one or more server(s) 1304. Theserver(s) 1304 can also be hardware and/or software (e.g., threads,processes, computing devices). The servers 1304 can house threads toperform transformations by employing the architecture, for example. Onepossible communication between a client 1302 and a server 1304 can be inthe form of a data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or morecomputer processes. The data packet may include a cookie and/orassociated contextual information, for example. The environment 1300includes a communication framework 1306 (e.g., a global communicationnetwork such as the Internet) that can be employed to facilitatecommunications between the client(s) 1302 and the server(s) 1304.

Communications can be facilitated via a wire (including optical fiber)and/or wireless technology. The client(s) 1302 are operatively connectedto one or more client data store(s) 1308 that can be employed to storeinformation local to the client(s) 1302 (e.g., cookie(s) and/orassociated contextual information). Similarly, the server(s) 1304 areoperatively connected to one or more server data store(s) 1310 that canbe employed to store information local to the servers 1304.

What has been described above includes examples of the disclosedarchitecture. It is, of course, not possible to describe everyconceivable combination of components and/or methodologies, but one ofordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinationsand permutations are possible. Accordingly, the novel architecture isintended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variationsthat fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in eitherthe detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to beinclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising”is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.

1. A computer-implemented system, comprising: a provisioning componentconfigured to provision a secret for use with an ephemeral account; asigning component configured to sign the ephemeral account with thesecret to generate a signed ephemeral account and return the signedephemeral account to a user of the user account; an address book of anetwork gateway configured to receive and store the signed ephemeralaccount and the secret, wherein the network gateway confirms theephemeral account is valid when the ephemeral account is in the addressbook, and confirms the signed ephemeral account is signed using thesecret when the signed ephemeral account is not in the address book; anda hardware processor configured to execute computer-executableinstructions stored in a memory and associated with the provisioningcomponent, the signing component, and the address book.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the provisioning component is configured to provisionthe ephemeral account prior to creation of a friendly name.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, further comprising a revocation component configuredto revoke the secret in response to revocation of the ephemeral account,the hardware processor configured to execute computer-executableinstructions that implement the revocation component.
 4. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the signing component combines the secret with afriendly name and generates a combination of the secret and friendlyname, the hardware processor configured to execute computer-executableinstructions that enable the signing component to combine the secret andthe friendly name and generate the combination.
 5. The system of claim1, further comprising a validation component of the network gateway, thevalidation component configured to look up the secret in the addressbook, to validate ephemeral accounts signed with the secret, thehardware processor executes computer-executable instructions thatimplement the validation component.
 6. A computer-implemented messagingsystem, comprising: a signing component configured to receive atemporary message address associated with a user account and to sign thetemporary message address with a secret to create a signed temporarymessage address, and return the signed temporary message address to auser of the user account; an address book of a network gatewayconfigured to store the temporary message address and the secret; avalidation component of the network gateway configured to validateincoming messages directed to the signed temporary message address,configured to confirm the temporary message address is valid when thetemporary message address is in the address book, and configured toconfirm the signed temporary message address is signed using the secretwhen the signed temporary message address is not in the address book;and a hardware processor configured to execute computer-executableinstructions in a memory associated with the signing component, theaddress book, and the validation component.
 7. The system of claim 6,wherein the signing component generates a single secret for each userand multiple temporary message addresses are generated using the singlesecret.
 8. The system of claim 6, wherein the signing componentgenerates a plurality of secrets for each user and multiple temporarymessage addresses are generated that correspond to the secrets.
 9. Thesystem of claim 6, wherein the signing component returns the signedtemporary message address, which comprises a user identifier, a name,and an encrypted string that includes the secret.
 10. The system ofclaim 9, wherein the encrypted string is derived from an operation on acombination of the secret and the name.
 11. The system of claim 6,wherein the validation component further comprises a restrictioncomponent configured to restrict incoming messages to messages havingthe temporary message address signed with the secret and a user-defineddomain name.
 12. A computer-implemented method of messaging, comprisingacts of: propagating a temporary message address for a user and a secretto an address book of a network node; signing the temporary messageaddress with the secret to create a signed temporary message address,and returning the signed temporary message address to the user; lookingup at least one of the temporary message address or the secret in theaddress book based on receipt of incoming messages directed to thesigned temporary message address; and confirming the temporary messageaddress is valid when the temporary message address is in the addressbook, and confirming the signed temporary message address is signedusing the secret when the signed temporary message address is not in theaddress book.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprisingprovisioning the temporary message addresses prior to creation of thefriendly name.
 14. The method of claim 12, further comprising revokingthe secret in response to revocation of the temporary message address.15. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating a singlesecret for each user, and generating a plurality of temporary messageaddresses using the single secret.
 16. The method of claim 12, furthercomprising generating a plurality of secrets for each user, andgenerating a plurality of temporary message addresses that correspond tothe plurality of secrets.
 17. The method of claim 12, further comprisingreturning a signed message address that comprises a user identifier, theuser-supplied name, and an encrypted string that includes the secret.18. The method of claim 17, further comprising generating the encryptedstring by concatenating the secret with the name to generate a hash ofthe secret and the name.
 19. The method of claim 12, further comprisingrestricting incoming messages to messages having the temporary messageaddress signed with the secret and a user-defined domain name. 20.-28.(canceled)